


on top of the world

by thecoquimonster



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Adventure, Angst and Humor, Fluff too I guess, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-01-12 09:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1184790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecoquimonster/pseuds/thecoquimonster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Gaea wins and Percy breaks another promise to Nico, and surprisingly, Nico doesn't mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	on top of the world

**Author's Note:**

> So. I spent maybe three weeks writing this? And rushing to get it finished by today, since it's Valentine's Day and also Percico weekend, haha. So, I'll admit, the ending isn't the best. Also the tone changes like, through half the story. It's all angsty and sad and then somehow it takes on a really sarcastic tone and I really don't know how that happened. But hopefully you'll enjoy it. 
> 
> This is the longest one-shot I've ever, ever written and I find I actually like writing long one-shots like this; I'll have to write them more often. Only better. 
> 
> Anyway. Here goes it.

   _  
_

"I think we'll be safe here."

"You _think_?"

"Percy, Gaea has all but won. We're in a cave. I think she can pretty much sense us." The dim light from the fire illuminates Nico's face, and his expression is dark. His shoulders are slumped in near-defeat. "Probably won't be long till she finds us. But for now, yeah, I think we're safe."

The son of Poseidon closes his eyes and lets out a shaky breath. "Yeah, well. Thanks for finding me and bringing me here. And… I'm sorry about Hazel. I'm sorry you only found me."

The fourteen-year-old squeezes his eyes shut and all but curls up inside himself. It was bad enough that he'd heard Bianca's death ringing in his ears when he was ten years old, but hearing Hazel's death, louder and louder until it was almost deafening, was equally as heartbreaking. He gasps and tries not to whimper. Nico swallows and opens his dark eyes again, meeting Percy's green gaze. "I'm sorry about Annabeth. But… I'm glad I found you, at least. How'd you escape Gaea?"

"With difficulty," he grunts, and that's basically the end of that conversation.

Nico pokes the fire with a stick. "So, what now?"

"We survive, and find a way to beat Gaea."

The son of Hades frowns. "How will we do that? The gods are all in Tartarus. And we're just… it's just us now."

"Then we go down there again," Percy replies. "As for us being the only demigods, we're two sons of the Big Three."

They both stiffen at his words. But Nico, who went down by himself, is feeling as if he might have a panic attack. The thought… he starts shaking, and the sixteen-year-old curses and takes Nico's wrist. For once, the younger teen doesn't flinch away from his touch. Nico gets himself under control. "Sorry. I just—"

"I understand," the older boy murmurs, smiling grimly. "I shouldn't have suggested it."

"It's okay. I'm fine now," he says softly. "We'll plan later, okay? Let's rest. I'm so tired."

"I'll keep watch," Percy volunteers, and Nico curls up near the flames and closes his eyes.

They both know that they won't be getting any rest.

**Ω Ω Ω**

They live in their cave undisturbed for about a week. They're running dangerously low on food, so they risk heading out to find some sort of sustenance. Nico is reluctant to leave the cave, fearing that Gaea could easily trap and kill them, but one look from Percy is enough to get him to tag along. He forgets that the older teen eats more than him.

They walk right into a trap.

They're separated from each other, and no matter how many times Nico calls Percy's name, he doesn't hear a response. He only hears the cheers of the monsters that surround him.

_Enough,_ he hears a sweet, sleepy voice emanating from the very ground he stands on. _We only mean to scare him, not kill him._

"Gaea," Nico snarls, tightening his grip on his Stygian iron sword. "What do you want?"

_Some interesting developments have occurred, wouldn't you say so, Nico di Angelo? Why, you and Percy Jackson, the lone demigod survivors. Who would have thought?_

"Is there a reason you're talking to me?"

_Patience, Nico, patience._ He can hear the sadistic smile in her voice. _I want to make a deal with you._

"The answer is no," he spits.

Her voice becomes stern and irritated. _It would serve you well to listen before you decide, son of Hades. If you don't agree to this, your beloved dies. Understood?_

He freezes. Ever since Bianca died, the motto he lives by is 'keep Percy alive.' Gaea has him right where she wants him, and he won't be able to say no, no matter the horrible thing she wants him to do. Nico clenches his fist and takes a deep breath. "What do you want me to do?"

_See how easily you are tamed,_ the earth goddess all but purrs, and it disgusts him. He can't let Percy die. He just _can't._ Threaten Percy once, and he will do anything to keep him alive. First it was the dip in the Styx. Then keeping his past from him when he appeared at Camp Jupiter. Now, he's obeying Gaea, the very goddess he and Percy had been planning to overthrow.

_I'm sorry, Percy,_ he thinks, feeling his heart squeeze with guilt.

Gaea pauses before she continues. _I would have you raise the dead and raze the earth. Destroy all that is left of the gods' legacy. This is my domain now. Do this for me, and Percy will continue to live. I might even reward you. Perhaps I could make him… return your affections?_

Tears are running down his cheeks. He feels filthy for betraying the gods, but _Percy…_ Percy will live if he does this, and maybe, just maybe, Gaea will have mercy. Maybe the older boy will love him, too.

Nico is so selfish.

"Okay," the fourteen-year-old agrees hoarsely. "I'll do it. Okay."

_Then we must return your strength,_ she states, and suddenly he is underground, in some sort of chamber. More like a prison. A simple bed is up against a wall. After a quick scan of the small room, he notices a mini-fridge stocked with Coca-Cola and a microwave.

_The microwave will give you whatever food you wish. Say what you want about me, but you are rewarded if you obey. Have the gods ever done this for you?_

He doesn't answer.

**Ω Ω Ω**

Percy wakes up in, as far as he can tell, a prison cell underground. He whips his gaze around the small room. He's trapped underground. Trapped, oh gods, he's trapped. He should have listened to Nico when the younger boy warned him against leaving the safety of their cave to scavenge, but they needed food. Nico is incredibly scrawny, it's like he never eats, and Percy… well, he likes eating a lot. He's used to conserving resources; all of his past quests taught him that, but there's a limit.

_You cannot leave,_ says the incredibly irritating, familiar voice of Gaea. Percy can detect slight vibrations around his quarters, as if the walls themselves are speaking.

"If you're going to kill me, why wait?" he spits out, taking Riptide out of his pocket and uncapping the pen. As the familiar sword elongates in his hands, he feels slightly safer. It's a stupid feeling, because Gaea is stronger than all the gods, so why should he and his sword stand a chance?

_I'm not planning on killing you. I am, however, considering killing your young friend Nico di Angelo,_ she replies. He can hear the malicious smile in her voice, and he wishes he knew where to stick his sword.

"If you touch him, I swear on the River Styx—" he begins to growl, but is cut off by the earth goddess.

_I will not harm him if you do me a favor._ Now, her voice is light, as if her request will be harmless.

"What do you want me to do?" he asks, tightening his grip on Riptide.

_You are the son of Poseidon. The Earthshaker. I would have you destroy—_

"Destroying is out of the question," Percy snarls. "I will never help you, Gaea."

_Then Nico dies. Do you really want him to, Percy? After all of your efforts to save him. You promised his sister that you would look after him, didn't you? And do you know how many times you have broken that promise? Only to save him at the last possible moment? You have never paid him much attention. You thought of him as a chore, that you are bound to him by the guilt you feel for letting his older sister die. Break the promise one last time, once and for all. Prove to me that you do not value his life._

Percy drops his sword and holds his head between his hands, covering his face. Tears are streaming out of his eyes, because it's true, it's all true; he's never given Nico a second thought, not before going through Tartarus anyway, and now he's the only friend Percy has left. No wonder the kid hates him. "No. No, no. I'll-I'll do it. Just don't… don't kill him. Please. I'll do anything."

_Splendid._

_**Ω Ω Ω** _

About a week after Gaea captures them, Percy is sent to the upper world. He looks around, squinting at the sunlight. He's grown unaccustomed to the bright yellow rays and he turns away, feeling the heat burn his back through his shirt. He knows what he must do. He has to create tidal waves, he has to shake the earth, he has to cause so many natural disasters and the though frightens him. He hates being a destroyer; he's grown so used to having Annabeth around building things up that he doesn't know how to break things down.

_What are you waiting for?_

It comes surprisingly naturally.

_**Ω Ω Ω** _

Nico can count on one hand all of the people in his life that he cares for more than himself, and all but one of them are dead. The fourteen-year-old has lost pretty much everyone he loves: first his mother, which he dimly remembers now; Bianca, the older sister who shaped his whole world (pre-Olympian gods, that is); Hazel, the younger sister he brought back to life last year in the hopes that he could rebuild a family, in the hopes that he could be loved again; and Percy, who needs no explanation because Zephyrus spelled it out rather nicely a few months ago: the one he cares for most. The one he would do anything for. The one he is betraying, because he has to protect Percy, keep him alive.

He has lost too many of his loved ones already. Nico can't lose Percy, too.

He hears the deaths of mortal lives ring in his ears; deaths that he has caused, and feels sick with guilt. But what disgusts him most of all is the overwhelming _relief_ he feels, because he knows as long as he does this, there is one person safe. A person by the name of Percy Jackson.

_**Ω Ω Ω** _

The screams of mortals are still pounding in his ear drums as Percy is pushed into his chamber by his Earthborn guards. He collapses on his bed and cradles his head between his hands, shuddering with guilt and anger. How can he stand up to Gaea? Oh, gods, this guilt is killing him. And for what? Gaea is two-faced. Maybe Nico is already dead, and she's only pretending he isn't so that he will be safely on her side. It would be so easy for her to murder his friend and not tell him –Percy isn't a son of Hades; he would be none the wiser.

He looks up and addresses Gaea directly. He's surprised by how hoarse his voice is. He hasn't spoken in at least a week, and the lack of use clearly shows. "I can't do this anymore."

There is no response.

Percy tries again, forcing himself to speak more loudly. "Do you hear me, Dirt-Face?! I can't do this anymore!"

This gets the Primordial's attention. _I see. Then I suppose your friend Nico will have to die._

"He could already be dead! For all I know, you've just been lying to me this whole time!" he yells, jumping up to his feet. He clenches his fists and lowers his head, breathing heavily. "I need to see him. I need you to prove he's still alive. I need to see him."

Gaea is silent for a moment before deciding. _I see no harm in this._

A few minutes later, the wall opens up and his two Earthborn guards grab him by the collar of his shirt and pull him out into a sort of corridor. They let go of him and begin to walk through it and Percy frowns because it reminds him a little too much of Daedalus' Labyrinth. They stop in front of another wall of earth, and it opens and he's pushed into it.

His eyes instantly meet the familiar dark chocolate-brown gaze. Nico's eyes are dull, but they immediately flicker to life once they recognize the deep sea-green orbs. Nico stands up from the loveseat he sits on; if Percy didn't know better, he would say that they're in a living room. He looks around and decides that Gaea has pretty good taste in interior design.

"Percy," the younger half-blood rasps.

The son of Poseidon sighs and approaches Nico, biting his lip. He feels such relief that he hasn't been tricked or betrayed, that Nico is here, alive, in front of him. When he speaks, he sounds a little hysterical, but he figures that after a couple weeks of imprisonment, forced to do the will of an evil goddess, he's earned the right. "I thought you were dead."

He laughs loudly, shaking with relief. He takes Nico's wrist. He hasn't had human contact in such a long time, the touch sends a shock throughout his entire body. Nico, who's accustomed to not touching, gasps and shudders at the sensation. He looks up at Percy with dark eyes that are filled with unspilled tears.

Percy laughs again, not because he finds Nico's sadness amusing, but because Nico is here, and he is so, so very glad. Gods, he can't get over this happiness. "I'm so glad you're not dead."

"I knew you weren't dead," Nico says softly. The younger demigod takes a shaky breath and closes his eyes tightly, releasing a couple of tear drops that roll down his pale cheeks. "But I needed to see you."

The son of Poseidon wipes away Nico's tears and gathers the small half-blood into a hug, holding him tightly, so tightly it's as if he is crushing Nico into himself, to protect the boy, to keep him from harm. The fourteen-year-old clutches the older boy's shirt and begins to sob. Percy shushes him and strokes his silky hair. Finally, Nico calms down and wipes his eyes. He pulls away.

"Percy, the things Gaea is making me do…" he says, looking incredibly remorseful. "She told me I had to… raise dead and raze the earth or she would kill you. Oh, Percy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"She told me something along the same lines," Percy replies, giving him a grim smile.

"And you do them? To keep me alive?" Nico stiffens, looking shocked.

The older boy nods.

"I thought you hated me," says Nico sadly.

Percy widens his eyes. "I thought _you_ hated _me_! And here you are, keeping me alive!"

Nico barks out a humorless laugh and grabs Percy's wrist. His hand closes around the older teen's wrist tightly, as if he won't ever let go. The younger boy searches Percy's eyes. "Percy." Nico says his name like an incantation. It sends a shiver down Percy's spine. The short teen gives him a small smile, filled with sadness. "I have never hated you, Percy. It was never hate."

The realization hits him and he feels crushed under the full weight of it. No, Nico has never _hated_ him, and there are only two emotions that would generate the kind of response the younger demigod has for him. "Nico…"

"Don't give me your pity, Percy," he says, bristling. "I'm fine. I just –I can't lose you."

"You're all I have left, Nico," he replies, forcing a smile. "So I can't lose you either."

Nico sighs and looks away. They stand in silence for a while, and Percy is surprised when Nico is the one to break it. "So, what do we do now?"

Percy sounds, even to himself, incredibly resigned to their fates. He tries to grin, but it looks more like a grimace. "Keep doing what we're doing. What else can we do? If one of us rebels, the other will die. And I can't let you die, Nico. I just can't."

"I know," he whispers, lowering his head. Percy flinches. He's Nico's hero, the one with an escape plan. It must hurt like hell to realize there is no way out of this, even for the Great Percy Jackson. Nico sighs. "I just hoped…"

"Then you keep hoping," he orders the son of Hades. "Don't give up hope, Nico. I'm still here, right?"

"Right," Nico agrees softly, "I'll try not to."

"You're better than I am, Nico," the older teen comments, and Nico blinks up at him in surprise and something near disbelief, so he insists. "You are."

He can see the faintest trace of a smile on his friend's face, but before he can return it, the wall of earth has opened up. His two Earthborn guards are back, and one of them grabs his arm, the one that Nico isn't holding, his left. Percy flinches away from the guards. Nico's gaze instantly looks panicked and he tightens his grip around Percy's right wrist. "Please!" Nico begs the guards. "Don't take him away now, please."

They pay the son of Hades no attention. As a reflex, Percy holds on to his friend's wrist tightly, not wanting to leave. They just met again like, ten minutes ago, couldn't Gaea have given them a couple of hours?

They yank his arm again, so hard that Percy feels a stab of pain and has to let go of Nico. He thinks that maybe they dislocated his shoulder, because it _hurts_. Nico determinedly does not let go.

"Let go!" one of the Earthborn says, finally.

The other lets go of Percy and walks over to Nico and rips him away from the other boy. "We say 'let go,' you let go!"

"Percy!" Nico yells out, struggling against the Earthborn's grip. The guard yanks him back so hard that he lands on the couch, dazed for a moment. He shakes his head and looks up at Percy. His dark brown eyes hold intense sadness, as if he recognizes that this perhaps is the last time they'll ever see each other again. Nico is all Percy has left; Percy is all Nico has left, and they're being forced apart again. He doesn't like how hopeless the younger teen looks.

He has to fix that.

"Hope!" Percy orders. "Always hope, Nico. Never lose sight of it!"

As the Earthborn guards drag him away, he sees Nico nod slightly. He hears Nico's voice as the wall of earth closes up once more. "Percy."

**Ω Ω Ω**

Nico walks calmly through his army of dead. He shivers as he feels more mortal lives passing, and he wishes everything would just _stop._ He wants Gaea dead, but he doesn't know how to go about that. Gaea can't die, and if he rebels, that ringing in his ears will be Percy's.

It's all too much.

He strides forward, radiating death and darkness. In front of him, a mortal woman clutches her baby tightly to her chest, trying to shield it from him. Her eyes are fierce. She looks ready to fight.

Mothers are terrifying.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he says quietly.

The woman looks as if she doesn't believe him.

"I know a safe place for you," Nico continues, hoping that it still is safe, even with Gaea… but Camp Half-Blood is the only place he knows that is somewhat safe; Thalia's tree is still up, and even though the Athena Parthenos was destroyed, the remaining protective energy surrounds the strawberry fields. He hasn't found any other half-bloods, but these mortals; they'll be okay there, so long as he allows them in.

"Safe," the woman snarls. "Does your definition of safe include 'death,' kid?"

"Not usually." He takes her by the hand, and she flinches away from his cold touch, but she decides to trust him, and they shadow-travel to Camp Half-Blood.

"This is your safe place?" the woman asks incredulously, gazing around the strawberry fields.

He shrugs in response.

It's not much, it's only two little mortal lives, but this is his one way of rebelling.

Gaea can't complain. He's indirectly killed about seven hundred people this week.

**Ω Ω Ω**

About two weeks since he saw Nico. Doesn't know if he can keep this up. He feels isolated, lonely, and his only company is Gaea's ever-present commands and the screams of dying mortals.

Why is he even doing this again?

Nico seems so out of reach. Is he even real? Does he even exist? Was Gaea tricking him when he met him two weeks ago?

"Gaea," he starts. "N-Nico. I need to see Nico."

_Why Percy, I've already proven to you that he's alive. What more do you want?_

"I want to see him more often. I-I can't… I…"

_Mortal minds are so fragile,_ she says in disgust. _They cannot stand isolation for long. Even Nico, the poor child, the one who prefers to stay away from others, gets lonely and cannot stand it. Very well, Percy Jackson. I will allow biweekly meetings with the son of Hades, but nothing more, understood?_

"Y-yes, Gaea." Since when was he a sniveling coward? Percy wonders, feeling disgusted at himself.

**Ω Ω Ω**

The next day, Percy is led to Nico's quarters. Once again, Nico's dull brown eyes brighten as he sees the older boy standing in front of him. A choked laugh escapes Nico's throat and he jumps to his feet. For once, Nico is the one to initiate contact, taking Percy's hands in his own small ones.

"I didn't think I would ever see you again," Nico begins. His dark eyes blaze. "I still hoped, though. And here you are again."

"Gaea doesn't like her playthings to be broken," Percy replies flatly. "I needed to see you."

Which is true. He has developed a sudden need for Nico; a need to hear the younger boy's voice, a need to touch him, a need to see him, talk to him, be with him. Nico is all he has left. Percy can see the same need in Nico's own gaze.

"How…" Nico falters. "I mean, my guess isn't that you're doing well, considering how _I'm_ doing."

"You guess correctly," he admits, forcing a smile. "But you're here. And that's good."

Nico lowers his gaze, slumping his shoulders and dropping his hands. "Percy, if you can't do this anymore, it's okay. Don't do it. Stand up to Gaea. I'm not worth it."

"You're all I have left," Percy says, incredibly shocked. Trust Nico to have his self-esteem problems now. "And that makes you more valuable than the world to me, Nico. I need you, Nico."

"I know." Everything in the younger teen's tone suggests that he wishes otherwise; that Percy didn't need him. A long silence stretches between them. "I've been saving people," he comments, his voice a mere whisper, and Percy's eyes widen.

"You _what_?"

Nico shakes his head slowly. "I can't take this anymore either, Percy. I hate killing people. I hate it. So I… I take them to Camp Half-Blood."

"Nico," he says urgently, taking his friend by the forearm, just below Nico's elbow. "How many people have you saved?"

The younger demigod tenses, his gaze flickering around, nervous and afraid that a certain earth goddess would be overhearing. He replies, in a voice so muted that Percy leans in closer and still has to strain his ears in order to hear, "Only about a hundred."

"Nico!" Percy breathes, stepping away and running his hands through his hair. He doesn't know what he feels: relief and happiness that the son of Hades is getting away with something like this? Anger at himself for not thinking of it? Terror of Gaea's wrath once she finds out? "Nico, she'll kill you!"

"Then I'll have died doing what's right," he murmurs. "I'll have died not hating myself."

"She'll kill _me_ ," Percy insists, which now that he knows of Nico's… secret… is sort of a low blow, but Nico's dark eyes blaze with irritation.

"Then why don't _you_ help me? That way she'll kill both of us. She'll destroy the world with all her giants instead. What use are we to her doing this, when she has an entire army of giants and when she's the strongest, oldest goddess and can do this by herself? She's just torturing us, Percy. She doesn't really have use for us, and once we're finished, she'll kill us anyway. This _rewarding_ ," Nico snarls, clenching his fists. He steps forward, and his glare is as intimidating as ever despite the fact that he's several inches shorter than Percy. The dim light of the quarters dims even more, as though the boy is creating shadows out of thin air. Nico is furious with Gaea, but for some reason, he’s taking it out on Percy and he doesn’t understand why. "It's all a lie. What did she tell you she would reward you with?"

"N-nothing," he stutters. "She just told me that if I didn't, she would kill you."

"She-she didn't tell you… she didn't say that she would give you Annabeth back?" Nico relaxes his stance and looks genuinely perplexed and a little lost, and for once, the son of Hades seems just as young as he really is. After everything the younger half-blood has gone through, he has matured much too quickly, acts much too old for his relative age, and it's a relief to see it. Not the happy, geeky ten-year-old Percy once knew, but the… whatever fourteen-year-old Nico is. Scared? Angry? Lonely? Nico has changed so much throughout the years, but he is still innocent despite everything.

Slowly, Percy shakes his head. "Why? What did she tell you?"

The other demigod's gaze fills with pain for a moment, but then his guarded expression is back and he looks away. "Nothing."

"She told me she would make me fall in love with you, didn't she," Percy realizes, and the fact that Nico doesn't reply is all the answer he needs. "And you're sure she's lying."

"Not so much anymore," Nico barks out a harsh laugh. "Do me a favor, Percy. Don't fall in love with me."

He scrunches his eyebrows in confusion. "Don't-don't you want that, though?"

"More than anything in the world," Nico confesses, that longing and pain brimming in his eyes again. He takes a step back and lowers his gaze. "But not like this, Percy. I don't want you to love me because of some stupid goddess' influence. I want you to love me because… well, because you love me. And as long as we're here, if by any chance you do fall in love with me, I-I won't be sure if it's real or if you're under some spell. So… it's easier if you just don't."

"It's not like I can control how I feel in either of those cases," Percy protests.

The younger boy's shoulders slump again. "I know. But just… try, okay? We're basically the only human contact we have."

"What's your point?" he wonders, frowning.

"You might start to fall in love with me just because you have no other choice," Nico says sadly. "Don't do it, okay? Try to… try to save people like I've been doing. Gaea said we'd have biweekly meetings, right? So, we'll figure out a plan on how to beat her eventually. But for now, we do this one thing… this one little act of rebellion."

**Ω Ω Ω**

"Somehow, we have to go back… back, uh, _down_ and break the gods out of jail," Nico says, lying down on the couch. He stretches, and Percy grins because the younger boy seems so catlike while doing this, and he’s briefly reminded of Small Bob.

 It's been about a month since the biweekly visits started, and Percy has found himself looking forward to those two days a week a little too much.

He’s started paying more attention to Nico, too. The way the younger teen rolls his eyes whenever Percy says something stupid; the way he’ll just say something really old-fashioned and it’s times like those where he has to remind himself that Nico is not from the 2000s, no matter how seemingly seamlessly he fits in with modern society; or how about the way he’ll mutter in Italian. It’s not even when he’s angry; Nico will just subconsciously switch to Italian and it takes Percy saying, “No speakie-de English” for the boy to instantly flush with embarrassment before punching Percy’s arm.

“It’s not easy being bilingual,” Nico will say, glaring Stygian iron daggers at Percy, who just laughs it off.

  “You know Ancient Greek and Latin too,” he’ll point out, and Nico’ll frown before correcting himself.

“Multilingual, then.”

Which just makes Percy laugh harder.

 He's been doing as Nico told him; saving a few precious mortals and taking them to either Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter, whichever is closer, but he doesn't spend much time with them considering he's supposed to be helping with the apocalypse and all. Nico, however, he spends two full days a week with Nico, and it's such a relief to take a break and just be friends with the younger teen.

"That was our first plan, and well, I can't think of anything better,” Nico continues.

"I'm not too keen on going back down there," Percy admits, though he remembers fully well that the plan was originally his.

Nico raises his eyebrows at him, like, _And I'm not?_ and Percy wants to kick himself because once again, he's forgotten that Nico went down to Tartarus, too, and he went there _alone._ Percy barely made it with help; how strong must Nico be to make it on his own?

"I didn't," Nico says, as if he was reading the older demigod's mind. Nico has a habit of doing that, knowing what's going through his mind. It's as bad as Annabeth, or worse. "I was captured within maybe a day or two. Was forced to stay awake with swords at my throat and had to travel nonstop. They put me in the jar before we reached the Doors of Death."

"You didn't die, though," he murmurs. "That's just… incredible. You're incredible, Nico."

The son of Hades looks away. He clears his throat before speaking again, in a hushed tone. “So I figure… we go down there, and then gather up the gods.”

“And we take them to the Doors,” says Percy. “I know where they are, so that’ll be easy. Considering we don’t, you know, die.”

Nico shakes his head and curses in Italian. “I almost forgot.”

“What?”

“The double-seal,” he whispers. “Someone either has to stay behind to close the Doors or we have to separate. You-you know where the Doors are from Tartarus, so you… you have to go back down while I stay up and find the Doors from above. The problem is I don’t know where they are now.”

“That’s definitely a problem.” Percy sighs and frowns, resting his forehead on his hands. “I wish Annabeth were here.” And how he does. He never had a chance to grieve properly for her –he’s just pushed all feelings of sadness at her death down, down, down, too afraid in his own current situation.

He hears a sharp intake of breath from his friend and feels a rush of self-hatred. Yep, that’s it, Percy, why don’t you mention your dead girlfriend to your only friend who happens to be a son of Hades and yeah, let’s throw in the fact that he’s in love with you. That’s just great, Percy.

The older teen really needs to learn to hold his tongue and think about what he’s going to say before he says it.

“I-I mean, to, you know, help us figure this out,” he adds quickly, looking up at Nico, who is now sitting up.

The fourteen-year-old snorts. “Doubt even the great daughter of Athena could figure it out.” He frowns. “What if it was still in Epirus?”

“The House of Hades was destroyed,” Percy argues.

“But the Doors could still be there,” Nico says, eyes brightening. “I could check tomorrow. I could shadow-travel up there and check.”

“Hold your horses; I won’t see you for a few more days. Besides, doesn’t Gaea switch the entrances?”

“If there’s a pattern…” Nico says, sitting up straighter, looking excited. Percy hasn’t seen the kid look like this since he was ten. It’s really cute, he thinks. “If Gaea changes it up, but does it in a pattern, I can find out what it is!” But then he meets Percy’s eyes and immediately sobers.

“What?” he asks, sitting down beside his friend.

“I’m just thinking…” the fourteen-year-old takes a deep breath and raises his head to the ceiling. “This is a really long shot, Percy. And I don’t want you down in Tartarus again.”

“What did I tell you the first time Gaea let us meet each other again?” Percy demands.

“Hope,” Nico whispers in reply. “But Percy, you’ll be on your own in Tartarus–”

“With more than a dozen gods that will hopefully be on our side,” he cuts in.

“We don’t even know if they’ve reformed.”

Percy rolls his eyes. “If you’re really so worried, we don’t have to do this right away. I think it’s best to wait a bit. We should be patient. I think it’s a good strategy.”

His friend nods. “Makes sense. Gaea must have been incredibly patient for all this time, and she won. Maybe if we demonstrate a bit of patience…”

**Ω Ω Ω**

Nico doesn’t like this whole thing with Percy going into Tartarus by himself, but what other choice do they have? He scowls and stabs the earth with his Stygian iron sword. The earth cracks and moves underneath, and he notices birds jump out of their trees in a panic to escape the vibration of his mini-earthquake.

He’s somewhere in Canada, he thinks, but he just doesn’t care anymore unless he’s at Camp Half-Blood or near Epirus, where he keeps checking for the Doors, but they never show.

“That’s a strange metal for a sword,” says an unfamiliar voice, and he tenses. It’s not easy to sneak up on him, that’s a fact. He turns and finds himself facing a girl about his age. She wears her dark hair in a messy braid over her left shoulder. Her clothes are filthy and her face is smudged with dirt.

“Who are you?”

The girl tugs her sleeve down over her forearm. “I’m a demigod like you, son of Hades.”

“I thought that Percy Jackson and I–” he manages. “I thought we were the only demigods left.”

“Well, there are more. Sorry to disappoint,” she says, crossing her arms and rolling her blue-gray eyes. “Gaea can try, but she can’t kill us all. We’re like cockroaches.”

Nico can’t help but smile at that comment. “So are you going to answer my first question?”

“My name is Vivian. Daughter of Hecate, nice to meet you, Nico di Angelo. I remember you from Camp Half-Blood.”

“So…” he says, fidgeting uncomfortably. “Why aren’t you there now? At Camp Half-Blood? I’ve been saving some mortals, and letting them stay there, but no demigods…”

“Because it’s fairly obvious that Gaea would find us at one of the camps especially made to keep us half-bloods safe, don’t you think?” Vivian asks, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, uh, right. So, what do you want with me?”

Vivian tips her head to the side. “I know you’re working with Gaea.”

It stings more than it should. It’s the truth, but it doesn’t mean he has to like it. Nico clenches his fists and swallows hard. “Yes, I am. But I’m not –I don’t _want_ to. I’m trying –Percy and I, we’re trying to find a way to fix this mess. To defeat her.”

The girl –who, he notices with a surge of irritation, is taller than him – just smiles and nods. “I know that, too. You’re not a bad person, Nico. You were just put into an impossible situation and you’re just looking out for yourself. I can get that whole ‘self-preservation’ thing. Hades, I’m doing it myself!”

“You said there were other half-bloods,” Nico says. “Where?”

“Oh, around,” Vivian replies with a vague hand gesture. “So, you have a plan to defeat Dirt-Face, do you?”

“Look, if you show me the others and let me take them to Camp Half-Blood, I’ll tell you the plan, okay? There are mortals there and they don’t know how to protect themselves, so please,” he begs.

“I won’t show you the campers till you tell me your plan,” the tall girl snaps.

Nico sighs, then tells her what he and Percy plan to do; the trip to Tartarus and everything.

“But you don’t know where the Doors are on this side,” Vivian says thoughtfully. “And you’re here looking for them.”

“While simultaneously destroying the world to appease my captor, yes,” he adds.

She smiles. “They’re here. They appear every three days.”

“Do they?”

Vivian glares at him. “Would I lie to you? Look, I’ll stay here and close the Doors for you. You and Percy go down. We all know that Percy will screw it up on his own and Annabeth isn’t here to save his ass anymore. Besides, you’re a son of Hades. You and Percy, the two strongest demigods left, you’ll be fine down there. Especially if you’ve been there already.”

Nico frowns. “No tricks?”

“Gods, Nico, just because I’m a child of Hecate.” Vivian shakes her head in mock disappointment. “What if I asked you the same thing because you’re a son of Hades and working for Gaea?”

“It’s not that!” he protests. “I’m a child of Hades, Vivian, I know what it’s like to be trusted, but… Gaea could have heard my and Percy’s plans. How do I know _you’re_ not working for her like we’re supposed to be?”

Vivian sighs. “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I suppose there isn’t any harm if what I’m saying is the truth. A swear on the Styx is still binding. So. I swear on the Styx this isn’t some trick, and that I am truly trying to help you and Percy overthrow Gaea. I swear on the Styx that I _will_ close the Doors after you bust the gods out of jail. There.”

“I swear on the Styx that I’m not lying, and that Percy and I are finding a way to defeat Gaea.”

They eye each other warily. When neither of them are struck down in some sort of freak accident, Vivian grins.

“Was that so hard?” the daughter of Hecate taunts, but Nico ignores it.

“So, how many others are there again?”

“Only twelve.”

“Good enough. Some demigods are better than none.”

**Ω Ω Ω**

“So all we’ve gotta do is break out of here,” Percy says straightforwardly, leaning back. “Simple enough.”

“Except for the fact that we’re prisoners,” Nico replies, his usual scowl on his face. Percy wishes he would wipe it off already. There are too many reasons for him to scowl, but at least he could try smiling once in a while. Besides, he likes Nico’s smile. It brightens the room. Brightens his day, really. He doesn’t know how he lived without seeing that smile at least once a week. “Yeah, a jail break is so simple.”

“Please,” the son of Poseidon says, jumping to his feet and crossing his arms, smirking down at his friend. “I busted out of Tartarus. What do you call Tartarus, huh?” He’s choosing to be annoying today, leaning down and poking Nico’s arm, which makes the younger half-blood glare at him. He doesn’t flinch away though, that’s good. “Huh, huh, huh?”

“The maximum-security prison of the Underworld,” Nico replies flatly.

“BINGO!” Percy says, clapping his hands together. “So, if that’s the maximum security prison, then this should be a piece of cake, especially with our respective earth powers, don’t you think? I mean, it’s why Gaea chose us to destroy the world in the first place, right?”

“Right,” he agrees. “But I’m just… how would we do it?”

“You’re too much like Annabeth,” Percy says, frowning. For once, the name doesn’t cause him a pain in his chest. “You think too much, you strategize too much. The best plan is to have no plan. We wing it.”

“So… when do we break out?”

“Next time we meet,” Percy replies. “Let’s just chill today.”

“I’m fine with that,” Nico agrees, relaxing into the couch. “I’m tired.”

“Take a nap,” he orders. “The guards won’t take me away for a few more hours.”

Nico shakes his head gently. Percy can detect a slight coloring of the younger teen’s cheeks. Nico twists his skull ring, which makes the shadows darker and the air thicker and colder. The son of Hades lowers his gaze and bites his lower lip for a moment before speaking. “This might be our… you know, last full day together. I’d rather spend it just… talking. Not sleeping.”

“I like that idea,” Percy says, giving him a smile. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Anything.” He shrugs. “Really. Anything.”

“Okay.” Percy mulls over a few topics, and he’s about to ask when exactly Nico fell in love with him when he stops himself, thinking that perhaps that is the one topic the other boy won’t want to engage in conversation in. Maybe later, he thinks. For now, he settles for the second touchiest topic between them. “Tell me about Bianca.”

Nico cringes, but he does not try to change the subject. “Of course you want to know about Bianca.” He lets out a short, pain-filled laugh. “She died for you and you didn’t know her all that well.”

He’s silent for a couple of moments, and Percy glances at him to make sure that he is okay. Nico isn’t crying, but his expression is filled with grief. Nico scratches his arm and smiles. “She-she was the greatest sister ever.” Then he tenses. “ _Big_ sister, I mean. Because –Hazel… you know, I loved her just as much. Anyway, she… knew.”

“About you being gay?”

Nico flinches as if he isn’t used to hearing the word, and Percy lays a reassuring hand on his friend’s shoulder, but that only makes Nico scoot further away. Right. He really should stop doing things so impulsively.

“Yeah, yeah, she knew. I…” Nico laughs. “Back in Italy, when I was little. I had a sort of boyfriend. If one could have a boyfriend when they were eight. And my mom… she was horrified, you know? I mean, she loved me and she wanted to protect me from what other people would think. We moved to the States, but I mean… it’s not like it was looked at any better over there back then, right? That doesn’t matter, though. We were dunked in the Lethe and forgot all about our mom, as I’m sure you already know. And, well, she was my only family, Bianca. She loved me and didn’t care about who I loved.”

Percy smiles and nods for him to continue.

“And… I got so angry at her for joining the Hunters. She was my only family and she abandoned me. She was my mom and my big sister and my best friend all rolled into one –can you imagine how betrayed I felt when she just upped and left me?” Nico shakes his head. “I loved her so much and she left! And everyone since then… everyone has left me.”

Percy wants to say that he didn’t leave, but he knows that’s as true as saying that the sun is as cold as ice. “Nico,” he says, taking his friend by both of his shoulders and bringing him closer. “People may have left you, but I came back.”

“ _You_ had no choice,” he says, glaring at him. “That doesn’t count.”

Percy lets Nico go and runs his hand through his own black hair. It’s gotten longer; if his mom were still alive, she would be telling him to cut it. Right now it’s almost as long as Nico’s. “I’m sorry, Nico. I realize what a shit friend I’ve been to you.”

“’S okay, Percy,” he murmurs softly. “I forgive you. I forgive you every day. You don’t have to apologize.”

“I do, though. I never gave you a second thought before Tartarus.”

Nico doesn’t reply. He merely stares up at the ceiling. A few minutes pass before he speaks. “You know, Percy, I have loved you from almost the first time I saw you. From when you fought the manticore. You were my hero, Percy. Strong and brave and perfect. Hearing you apologize for a mistake you made — _you_ , Percy Jackson… you would think my feelings would disappear. To realize you’re just as flawed as anyone else. You’d think that would disgust a person whose love was built on hero-worship and intense admiration. But the exact opposite is true. You recognize you’re not perfect, and you work to better yourself. That’s even more admirable. That’s more admirable and I can’t help it, Percy, I…”

“Don’t apologize for your feelings,” he tells Nico sternly. “Don’t apologize for loving someone, Nico. Ever.”

The son of Hades falls into silence, and he curls up tightly, like a cat. “I’m tired,” he says, changing the subject. “I think I’ll take that nap now.”

“Are you sure?” he asks gently, but he knows that Nico is as stubborn as a mule.

He watches as Nico closes his dark eyes. A few minutes later, the younger teen’s heavy breathing indicates he has fallen asleep. A strand of silky black hair falls in Nico’s face, and Percy smiles to himself as he reaches over and brushes it to the side. His heart sort of flutters in his chest; Nico’s been looking a little healthier lately, filling out and he even regained a bit of color, but he still mostly looks like the kid who just busted out of Tartarus and woke up from being imprisoned in a bronze jar. He can’t stand the thought of Nico reverting to that state, but at the same time, Percy knows that this is what needs to happen. Besides, who’s to say Nico will?

As Nico sleeps, Percy tries to make a game plan for how exactly they’re going to escape this place, but he can’t focus. He’s never been really good at focusing, but right now the only sound in the room is that of Nico’s breathing. He hears a little groan coming from Nico and turns to see the other boy turning the other way. His posture is more relaxed and he isn’t curled into himself like before.

Nico’s breathing is lulling Percy to sleep, too, but a shot of adrenaline wakes him up when he hears a sudden gasp from the son of Hades, who has jerked awake and sat up abruptly, panting. Panicked dark brown eyes meet his own, and Percy can already guess what has happened.

“Nightmare?” he asks, and Nico nods wordlessly.

Percy doesn’t need to ask what the nightmare was about. He knows. He has them nearly every night. Tartarus haunts them even after several months (he’s lost count of how many; probably about eight? Does that make Nico fifteen now? He knows he’s seventeen, but he isn’t sure if Nico is still fourteen or fifteen already) and they’re preparing themselves to go again. He feels a surge of protectiveness inside him, but  he tries to push it away. Nico got through there alone. He’s strong.

“I’m okay,” Nico tries to assure him. “I’ll be okay down there.”

“Nico, if you’re not ready–” 

“I’ll be okay,” he insists. “I’ll be okay.”

Percy bites his lower lip, remembering how terrible Tartarus had looked to him when he was about to die and how Nico must have seen the pit that way the entire time. And here he is, pushing past his fears for Percy, because they have to do the right thing, because they have to save the world (again), and this might be slightly more difficult than any other challenge they’ve faced.

“If you say so,” the seventeen-year-old replies, still unsure.

Then they switch topics and start joking and laughing and Percy wonders when hanging out with Nico became so easy, because this is literally the end of the world. How in Hades are they laughing and joking?

The guards come, and neither of them fight for more time anymore.

“See you later, alligator,” says Nico, in a rather sarcastic tone, but Percy knows that under the sarcasm he’s actually genuine about it.

Percy rolls his eyes and grins. “In a while, crocodile.”

**Ω Ω Ω**

It’s _the day_ , and Nico still has no idea how to go about this. Well, he’s got his backpack ready, filled with non-perishable foods (more for Percy’s sake than his own, since he barely eats). He even has some ambrosia and a couple canteens of nectar, because Percy doesn’t have the foresight to bring his own.

But other than being nutritionally prepared, he has no clue. Seriously, how do two demigods, no matter how powerful, just escape Gaea? Like. Just how? He’s been thinking about this and he knows Percy has been thinking about this but neither of them have an actual plan, so they just agree to cause havoc like they’ve been taught and hope for the best.

As for preparing for the worst, well. They’ve already lived through many things that were fates worse than death. Hell, they’re preparing to go back to a place far worse than any hell imagined –far worse than anything in the Fields of Punishment. So. Seems like they’ve got Gaea at a crossroads, huh?

_Ow_ , he thinks, remembering Hazel. Crossroads make him think of Hecate which makes him think of Hazel and how brave she was back at the Doors. He misses her. He’d just gotten another sister, and of course she had to die, too. And it just hurts. A lot.

“I’m going to do right,” he says aloud, to Hazel and Bianca. “I’ll fix this mess. Percy and I. We’ll do it together. And… everything will be okay again. For the world, at least.”

That’s when he hears the earth stir around him and his hairs stick up because he knows that they have to improvise. And he’s improvising right now. As the wall of earth opens and Percy is being pushed inside, Nico charges and collides with Percy, pushing him out of the quarters and landing on top of him.

“Well, isn’t this something you’ve wanted to do for a long time?” Percy smirks and Nico’s face burns with embarrassment and he quickly scrambles off of him.

“This is not the time for cracking jokes,” he hisses, and draws his sword, making quick work of killing the two Earthborn guards. He gives the older teen a glare as Percy rolls his eyes. “Come on.”

“You could have left me one to fight,” Percy complains, taking out Riptide and playing with the pen’s cap.

“Now you sound like Coach Hedge,” Nico scoffs, gazing around the corridor with no idea where to go. Percy is more familiar with the passageways, so this is where he takes the lead.

Percy frowns. “I’m not exactly sure what we’re supposed to be doing.”

“Breaking out.”

“Yeah, but now that it’s actually happening, I have like, zero idea of how to go about this. I thought winging it would be easy, but I just…” Percy trails off, staring at a blank wall. Literally. “Hey, these walls are made of earth, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you tunnel like Hazel could?”

“I’m not sure,” Nico admits, trying to ignore the pang in his chest at his little sister’s name and Percy’s usage of the past tense. “I could try, though.”

And, hey, what do you know, he can. Sort of. It’s exhausting work and by maybe an hour they’ve only tunneled around sixteen feet. Sweat trickles its way down his face as he commands the earth to move at his will. Nico steps forward, pushing the earth back, and he stumbles. Percy grabs his arm, steadying him on his feet.

“Percy,” he gasps, shaking with exhaustion. “Percy, you have to help. Please.”

“I can’t tunnel,” the son of the Earthshaker protests, not because he doesn’t want to do any work, but because he isn’t sure how he can help.

“Earthquakes,” Nico murmurs, holding his head in his hands, trying to force the pounding headache away. “You can split the earth, that’s all I need you to do.”

He watches as Percy closes his eyes and concentrates incredibly hard, and he feels the earth bend to the older teen’s will. “Weren’t kidding when you said this wasn’t easy,” he grunts, and the earth cracks and splits before them and Nico has to laugh because this is exactly what he wanted and it’s going so well.

Of course, a couple of hours later, they find themselves in a more, well. A more trying problem. It isn’t exhaustion (well, the two half-bloods are pretty tired, but it’s exhaustion _mixed_ with this new thing they have to deal with). Which happens to be Gaea. No, not directly, but whenever they attempt to move the earth, they find that it moves back, or worse, pushes against their own powers, making them use up more energy, and by nightfall, or what Nico deems to be nightfall, with how weary his bones are, both of the boys are so fatigued they give up and collapse on their work.

They’re too tired to sleep, too tired to even open their mouths to speak to each other, so they just lie there. Nico’s too tired even to open up his backpack and get his ambrosia, let alone his nectar.  

Nico closes his eyes for a second and when he next opens them, he feels completely recharged. Although his muscles are stiff and he’s not sure if his powers are even going to work today. Percy has to help him up, because every time he moves, his muscles scream in protest. Fortunately, Percy has gotten one of his canteens of nectar and gives it to him; Nico drinks and feels the stiffness go away.

“Okay, so what now?” Percy asks.

“We keep going,” Nico replies, shrugging.

“I’m hungry,” Percy mutters. “I need breakfast before we start, otherwise I’m going to fall flat on my face.”

The son of Hades snorts in a sort of half-amusement and half-annoyance, then opens up his backpack and flings a granola bar at his friend.

“You eat one, too,” orders Percy, taking off the wrapper and taking a bite of the breakfast bar.

Nico shakes his head. “The nectar gave me enough strength.”

“Nectar is not enough. It’s not just for strength. Gods, Nico, you’re dense. You need to _eat_. How else do you think you’re going to grow taller than me?”

“I think we both know that’s never going to happen,” he replies, analyzing Percy’s height; all six feet of him, and then shrugging because he’s several inches shorter, maybe about eight inches shorter? And maybe he’ll grow another two inches, but this is how he’s going to stay: a short, skinny son of Hades. “No matter how much I eat.”

“Nico,” Percy insists, and the younger teen scowls but he takes a granola bar, too, and he eats it slowly, glaring at the older demigod all the while. Percy doesn’t seem to mind as long as he’s eating.

Finally they begin to tunnel once more, without the difficulties of yesterday. Gaea isn’t even trying to stop them, which just makes Nico’s hairs stick straight up and makes him feel less in control than usual (which means, like, he feels like he has _negative ten_ control of this situation).

“Once we get out of this mess,” Nico coughs as dust and dirt swirl in the air, “I am _never_ going underground again.”

“Coming from you, that’s a big deal,” Percy murmurs, holding up his celestial bronze sword so Nico can have a bit of light to see.

“I’m done with the underground. Done with the Underworld.”

“Till you die, that is,” his friend says, though his tone is kind of wistful, which makes Nico turn his head to look at Percy curiously.

“Why’d you say it like that?”

“Say it like what?”

Nico blinks, trying to put his question into words, which is hard. Sometimes questions or even statements don’t really have words that will properly explain them. Language, Nico thinks, is weird. He knows four languages, and yet sometimes they feel suffocating, as if they’re trying to contain his thoughts. “I don’t know, like… you don’t want me to never go back to the Underworld? Or something.”

Percy shrugs and gives him a tiny smile. “Well, I mean. You’re Nico di Angelo, right, and you’re a son of Hades. It just seems –I don’t know, _wrong_? Yeah, seems kind of wrong that you’re just not ever going there again. It’d be like me never going to the beach again. It just seems to me that you’re shunning your parentage.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” he wonders tiredly. “Everyone else does.”

In truth, he doesn’t mind being a child of Hades. Sure, he has a closer connection to death because of this, but he also has a greater appreciation for life, you see. He’s learned a lot by being a son of the Underworld. No, he doesn’t hate being an Underworld kid. What he hates is the way people look at him, treat him for it.  A son of Death, they say, which he wants to correct, because technically Death is Thanatos, but yeah, you get the point –a son of Death should always be an outsider, because, well, who wants to be around a kid who reminds them of their own mortality?

“I don’t,” Percy says quietly.

“You knew me before you realized I was a son of Hades,” he points out, “and anyway, do you know that you’re very easy to read, Percy? I know you used to be afraid of me.”

“Your powers are stronger than mine. I was intimidated because a kid three years younger than me had stronger powers. And… yeah, you can be kind of scary from time to time, I won’t lie.” Percy laughs. “Your zombie powers are both super freaky and super awesome.”

“Thanks, I guess,” he mutters.

“But I don’t shun you,” Percy continues, grinning.

“I would have loved to hear that before all this,” Nico says, glancing up at Percy and feeling his heart squeeze at the expression of genuine fondness in his sea-green eyes. “But… yeah, thanks. At least one person doesn’t think I’m a freak. It’s comforting.”

“After this, no one will think of you as a freak ever again,” Percy states, stabbing his sword into a wall of dirt and rock, stirring up dust. The taller boy sneezes and wipes his nose with his shirt sleeve. He grins at Nico. “You’ll be a hero.”

“This is all based on whether or not we succeed.”

Percy hums thoughtfully at that. “Well, the way I figure is –either we win, or we die. And if we die, nothing really matters anyway, because the world will have been destroyed and there’ll be no people to remember us as heroes or failures anyway. So. Win-win?”

“Always the optimist,” Nico replies, shaking his head in mock irritation.

“Just trying to keep things light,” he says, putting a bit of bounce in his step. Nico rolls his eyes and follows.

They tunnel right into the edge of a cliff.

“Shhhhhiiiiiiit,” Percy hisses, pulling Nico back by the collar of his aviator jacket. “Wrong way.”

Nico shakes his head. “We’re going to Tartarus, right? We have to jump.”

For a moment, Percy looks as panicked as he feels –which is to say, Nico is almost frozen in terror and is trying very hard not to show it. Then the older half-blood swallows down his dread and gives a short nod, like, _Ready when you are._

Nico is not ready. He’ll probably never be ready to go through a literal and psychological hell for the second time in his life, but Percy’s here, Percy’s with him, and that means things will be okay, right? They have each other’s backs. Maybe not in the way Nico so desperately wishes (but hey, he was the one to pretty much command Percy not to fall in love with him, so, it’s his fault), but they have each other’s backs. And that’s always a good thing.

“H-hey,” Percy says, tense and nervous and terrified. “You don’t mind if we like, hold hands or –”

He doesn’t even let Percy finish his sentence before he takes the son of Poseidon’s hand in his own. He squeezes it tightly, and he’s probably cutting off circulation, but Percy doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he holds Nico’s hand just as tightly.

“On three?” Nico asks tensely.

“Fuck it,” Percy manages to choke out, and before their common sense can tell them to stop, they jump.

**Ω Ω Ω**

Somehow, the fall is shorter this time. Maybe because Percy’s with him, which distracts him a tiny bit, or maybe they tunneled deeper rather than closer to the surface, but regardless, it doesn’t feel like they have been falling for days.

Not like the first time at all. Actually, it’s infinitely better because he’s holding Percy’s hand.

He detects the familiar gray-red light and the smell of sulfur and feels a lump of dread form in the pit of his stomach. Up until now, nothing had really felt real, but now he knows for certain that they’re in Tartarus, and he hopes to –well, he can’t even say Olympus anymore, can he, since it’s destroyed, huh –he hopes to any benign higher power that they’ll survive again.

“Nico,” Percy says, “there’s water underneath us.”

He laughs. “One of the Underworld rivers.”

“I know,” the son of Poseidon states, frowning uncertainly. “Can you tell which it is? I don’t want us falling into the Lethe or the Styx. I mean –I can probably survive the Styx, but you… you don’t have your mother’s blessing. As for the Lethe. Well. What good will we do being here if we don’t even know our own names?”

“Thanks a lot,” Nico mutters, and concentrates. He isn’t a son of Poseidon, but he can get a certain vibe off of the Underworld rivers –after all, he’s a child of the Underworld, he knows his stuff, and he can certainly tell which river is which. “Cocytus.”

“Not again,” Percy murmurs.

“We’ve just gotta fight it,” says Nico, not very keen on facing the River of Lamentation himself.

“This is going to tire me out,” Percy informs. “Underworld rivers take a lot out of me. And, well, I almost didn’t survive the Cocytus the first time.”

The two look at each other uncertainly. They both have many things to lament; Percy has lost friends, Nico has lost friends, and what hope is there? Nico knows how he got through the Cocytus the first time: he thought of Hazel, and he thought of Percy, and how much they needed him. Percy? No doubt Annabeth had kept him holding on to the hope that they would move to New Rome after all this was over, or something. But this was literally the end of the world.

_Stop it,_ he chides himself. They aren’t even in the Cocytus and he has started thinking pessimistically. How can he even think they’ll make it out of the river if he’s thinking this way before even entering it?

_Positive thinking,_ he prompts himself. Only he doesn’t know what positive things to hold on to.

Then he reminds himself that Percy is with him; _Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, the one he cares for most,_ and they’re holding hands and despite everything, he finds himself grinning because yeah, his first time in Tartarus, he was alone and scared and his mind almost shattered into a million pieces, but _this time._ This time will be better, because Percy’s here, and not only that, a bunch of friendly-ish gods are here, and they’re going to kick Gaea’s ass.

_They are going to kick Gaea’s ass._

The thought brings him more satisfaction than it should, maybe, but it doesn’t matter because suddenly they’re engulfed by icy black water and those thoughts are instantly washed away as the current knocks the two demigods about, separating them.

Nico breaks the surface, which isn’t easy since his backpack is weighing him down, and gasps for air. “Percy!”

“Nico,” he hears the low-spirited tone come from somewhere, but Nico can’t really detect from where, because the water is rushing around his ears, deafening him, whispering loudly, _Who do you think you are, son of Hades, to be saving the world?_

_People won’t accept you, no matter how hard you try. No matter what you do for them,_ the voices hiss. _Why fight? Your sisters are dead and Percy will never love you._

“Percy,” he chokes out again, glimpsing a large shape next to him, struggling to keep afloat.

“Why fight,” the older teen murmurs, sea-green eyes glazed. “Why fight. Anna—Annabeth. Annabeth is dead.” Percy stops swimming, only barely treading the water at this point, and Nico isn’t sure if the water on his face is coming from tears or if it’s just river water.

_Percy will never love you,_ the river whispers to him.

_I know,_ he snarls back silently.

“Percy,” Nico pleads. But what can he do to keep Percy fighting, to keep his spirits up? He gets an idea, and he hates it, hates it so very much, but what other choice does he have? Maybe Percy doesn’t love him that way, and yeah, okay, he told Percy not to fall in love with him, but that doesn’t make Nico’s feelings any less strong.

Anyway, yeah, Nico struggles to get nearer to the half-blood, and he takes Percy by the shoulders. Nico isn’t good at guilt-tripping; he’s never asked anything in return from Percy, but now he does, because hey, it’s Percy’s fatal flaw and if it’s going to be used for an advantage rather than a weakness, it sure as hell better be now.  “Percy, you promised Bianca.”

That seems to startle him out of his lamentation, clearing his eyes. “Bianca.”

And of course, for good measure, to make sure that Percy _does_ fight, he pulls the older boy closer and smashes their lips together. It’s not really what he imagined kissing Percy would be like. It’s stiff and awkward and it’s because he has zero experience kissing, like, how do kisses even work? Oh, but they’re kissing and the grandest feeling just blossoms in Nico’s chest; his heart flutters and he feels short of breath, and not only because he’s half-drowned. A shock wave seems to surge through the water, as if in protest, _Hey, you’re not supposed to feel_ happiness _here!_

Percy pulls away, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion, but confusion is better than depression, right? “N-Nico,” he says, and suddenly the water is under Percy’s control and before he knows it, they wash up on shore.

Nico shivers from the cold. He can’t bring himself to look up at Percy. “S-sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologize,” Percy replies tightly. “You did what you had to.”

“I-I just,” he tries, but he shakes his head and says again, “I’m sorry. Really. I…”

“Did it help you, too?” Percy asks quietly. “Kissing me. Did it help you fight?”

“I— yes,” he admits.

Percy nods silently, and he’s silent for a while, as if debating on whether or not to continue. Nico can tell that there is something that Percy wants to say, but he’s hesitant. It’s not like –it’s not like Percy’s _scared_ or anything, just nervous, or at least, that’s how it looks to Nico. Finally, Percy sighs. “You’re going to hate me.”

“Why-why would I hate you?” he wonders. _I just kissed you, how can you think that?_

“I broke another promise,” Percy begins, and Nico starts shaking and he feels laughter bubble up inside him because he can see where this is going and he doesn’t know whether to be afraid or nervous or happy or angry and well, kind of confused honestly? Because obviously… obviously Gaea influenced him, right? What Percy feels isn’t… _real_ …can it be? Then he remembers, well, if Gaea influenced Percy to fall in love with him… wouldn’t she have taken away those feelings the moment they escaped?

It’s too much to hope, but Nico finds himself leaning forward to hear Percy’s words anyway.

“That promise about not falling in love with you,” Percy continues, flushing slightly. “I-I hope you don’t mind.”

Nico shakes his head. “But in the Cocytus… you mentioned Annabeth.”

 “Oh, you want to know what the Cocytus told me?” the son of Poseidon laughs. Then he looks a bit wistful. “Well, yeah, Annabeth. But it was also telling me my feelings for you are _wrong_ , you told me not to, I always break promises to you, and then, when you reminded me of the promise I made Bianca, well. You know.”

“So, you’re –you’re serious?” Nico asks, feeling a bit uncomfortable. He’s not used to being loved _back_ ; he’s nervous and scared but also incredibly happy.

“Well, I don’t think it’s Gaea, considering my feelings didn’t come out of the blue. They just… built up.”

Nico laughs, just really _laughs_ , because he honestly doesn’t know what to do. “So, what does that make us?”

“Boyfriends, I hope,” Percy murmurs.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay,” Nico agrees, feeling like he’s soaring despite the fact they’re in the deepest bowels of hell. “Okay. So, um, let’s keep going, I guess.”

He stands up, uncomfortable in his drenched clothes, but what else can they do? It’s not like they brought a change of clothes and even if they did, the backpack is just as waterlogged; it would have been no better.

“Maybe we can go to the Phlegethon? I mean, the heat might dry our clothes,” Percy suggests, watching Nico’s struggle.

“That sounds like a great idea, actually,” Nico agrees tiredly. He takes a few steps and freezes, taking in the landscape for the first time. His dreams have protected him from the truly terrifying sight that lies before him and he chokes, taking a few steps back instinctively, although he knows intellectually that it will do nothing. He is in Tartarus, and the only escape is forward, to the Doors of Death.

“Nico!” Percy says, holding his shoulders and hugging him from behind. “Nico, it’s…” His voice dies, probably because he knows that this isn’t okay. This is terrible, and he probably has an idea of the terrible things that the Mist cannot hide from a son of Hades. “I’m here,” Percy says instead, and that makes Nico relax a tiny bit.

“Come on,” Percy says gently, steering him towards the Phlegethon. Just two seconds in the near perimeter of the River of Fire dries their clothes completely. They scramble back and sit down. Nico hugs his knees to his chest as Percy frowns worriedly. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine,” Nico replies. “Just a bit shaken.”

Percy sighs and shakes his head slowly. “You don’t see the same things I do, do you?”

“No,” he admits.

“And you still agreed to come here.”

“I hate Dirt-Face more than I’m afraid of Tartarus,” Nico attempts to joke. “I’ll be fine. Promise. I mean, we’re going to find our parents, right? So it’s not going to be as bad as the first time.”

Percy smiles. “Okay. So do you want to sleep, or keep going?”

“I wanna keep going till my feet fall off,” Nico grumbles, standing up and brushing off his jeans. Percy stands as well and they walk in silence for a while, hiding around boulders, wary of anything. Though no monsters come after them, which is incredibly strange. Even with Gaea ruling, shouldn’t there be monsters here? Shouldn’t they be almost dying every ten minutes?

Percy takes Nico’s hand, and he senses that it’s more for his own sake than Percy’s. Annoyed, he rips his hand out of Percy’s grasp. Yeah, they’re in Tartarus; yeah, Nico’s nearly scared out of his wits, but they’re going to hold hands _after_ this. This isn’t some afternoon stroll around the park.

Actually, that’s kind of a funny image, now that he thinks of it. Kind of like: _Oh, yeah, Sunday afternoons, we like holding hands and taking a lovely stroll around Tartarus._ Huh.

It’s been maybe a few hours (time is difficult in Tartarus) since they started walking, and Nico’s feet seriously feel like they’re about to fall off, so he drops his backpack and tells Percy they’re making a pit stop.

“Do we have any food that isn’t destroyed by the Cocytus’ waters?” asks Percy, looking over his shoulder as he zips open the pack.

Nico hums thoughtfully. “Do you mind eating slightly soggy granola bars?”

“Anything at this point,” the son of Poseidon replies, and Nico gives him only one, because hey, they need to conserve their resources. The Phlegethon won’t act as a food source; ambrosia and nectar are solely for emergencies, too.

“We gonna sleep here?” Percy murmurs, leaning back on a boulder that shelters them quite well.

“Sure.”

“I’ll take first watch,” Percy offers, and Nico knows better than to argue, because this is Percy and again, fatal flaw. He only nods and curls up, using the backpack as a pillow. He closes his eyes and dozes, but he doesn’t sleep very deeply.

**Ω Ω Ω**

Percy hadn’t realized his feelings for Nico until they’d entered the Cocytus.

Okay, well, that’s a lie. They’d been creeping up on him for the past few months. The biweekly visits with Nico were the best parts of his week (which isn’t saying much, since the rest of his week consisted of destroying the world) but he genuinely likes the younger teen, likes him more friendship, and maybe it’s not love yet, not the love he and Annabeth shared, but it’s getting there.

Nico sleeps quietly, breathes quietly, speaks quietly. Everything about the fourteen (fifteen?)-year old is quiet (well, except for his rather loud hand gestures. No –not like Nico flips him off or anything, just like, the kid uses his hands when he talks a _lot_. Whether it’s because he’s Italian –to which Nico would say, “stop stereotyping, just ‘cause I’m Italian doesn’t mean I have to speak with my hands, gods, Percy” –or because Hades tends to talk with his hands remains to be seen). But he kind of likes it. Not because he likes that Nico tends to stay in the background, but he can appreciate how selfless Nico is. He never asks for anything in return, either.

And because of this, he lets Nico sleep and doesn’t wake him up until he feels they have to keep walking again.

“You let me sleep?” Nico asks in annoyance, and Percy shrugs as a response.

“Didn’t really feel sleepy.”

“Minotaur dung.”

He really likes how Nico refuses to use mortal curse words. It’s the cutest thing.

“Okay fine, you’ve caught me with my hand in the cookie jar,” he says. “I wanted you to sleep. Besides, I’m fine. I just wanna get this over with.”

Nico grumbles a bit, but he just takes a couple of granola bars and chucks one at him. They eat their tiny nutrition bars in silence and then they hit the road (figuratively. Because there isn’t an actual road in Tartarus and also they don’t have a car. Except for those Italian cars that are _still there_ from when he and Annabeth fell, but he doubts that they’ll work).

They’ve been walking for about two house when Nico suddenly tenses, and Percy reaches into his pocket for Riptide. But Nico doesn’t seem scared or even alarmed; he laughs like he can’t believe this is happening and he rushes over to one of those disgusting bulges of monster-infested pus.

“No way?!” Nico yells in excitement, and he laughs again. “ _No way!_ ”

“Nico, what in Hades’ name…?” he questions, following the younger teen more slowly and warily.

Nico pays him no attention and whispers excitedly, “Come out, come out, come out, girl. You can do it, hurry up. Come on, you can do it!”

Just as Percy is about to ask what’s happening again, there is a rupture in the thin layer of Tartarus’ skin –ew, gross, why does he have to think of Tartarus as a living, breathing thing, stop, stop, stop –and out comes one of the largest dogs he’s ever seen.

He recognizes her instantly.

“Mrs. O’Leary!” Nico gives a laugh which is not unlike a giggle and Percy can’t help staring at him because _Nico+giggling=_ ERROR. _Nico+giggling+Tartarus=_ *calculator explodes*

And Mrs. O’Leary, sweet, friendly Mrs. O’Leary, begins to growl at them. Percy can see in her dark, now beady eyes, that she doesn’t share their recognition.

“Nico,” he warns, stepping back, but Nico waves him off, facing the hellhound confidently.

“Hey, girl,” he hears Nico say gently, holding out his hand for the giant dog to sniff. Mrs. O’Leary only snarls.

“It’s me, Nico. You remember me, girl, don’t you?” Nico pushes forward, and the hellhound seems a bit confused, looking like she wants to tear his limbs apart, but also as if it would kill her to do so. She remains tense, baring her teeth.

“Come on, Mrs. O’Leary, you want to remember,” Nico continues, his voice taking on a hint of regret. “I don’t want to have to do this. You’re my friend, aren’t you, girl? And Percy, Percy’s your owner, isn’t he? Don’t you remember him?”

Mrs. O’Leary seems to make up her mind and lunges, but before she can rip off Nico’s limbs and before Percy can jump in front of Nico to take the attack himself, the fourteen (fifteen? This is confusing, let’s just say Nico’s fifteen)-year-old draws his sword and stabs it into the ground with incredible force. Darkness emits from the son of Hades and when it reaches the hellhound, she stops in her tracks.

“I am the son of Hades,” Nico snarls. “Remember, creature of the Underworld. _I_ command you! Remember!”

Mrs. O’Leary steps back, dipping her head in submission. Nico instantly softens. He holds out his hand again, speaking in a gentle tone. “Come on, Mrs. O’Leary. Don’t you rememb–”

He’s cut off when the hellhound pounces on him and starts licking his face and barking happily. Yep, same loud artillery-shell bark that he remembers. Nico laughs in relief and pure joy. “Thatta girl!”

Percy just blinks in complete disbelief. “Mrs. O’Leary?” he tests, and the hellhound immediately turns to him and wags her tail. She gets off of Nico and gives him the same greeting, making him laugh hysterically. Finally Mrs. O’Leary gets off of him too, and Nico pets the friendly hellhound and climbs on top of her.

“Come on,” Nico almost yells, and if Percy didn’t know better, he would say the teen is bouncing in his seat. “My father has to be close by.”

A large part of him wishes Hades didn’t have to be the first god they’ll come across. But Hades is an Olympian, so. And besides, it wouldn’t be fair to Nico. Nico can’t control his parentage, and besides, Percy hadn’t been lying when he said that Nico shouldn’t shun his father.

Percy climbs onto his pet hellhound’s back and wraps his arms around Nico’s waist. He can’t help thinking that their roles should be reversed; Mrs. O’Leary is _his_ pet, he should be steering. And then he thinks, _well. Nico and I are a, well, we’re a thing now, right? So… doesn’t that make Mrs. O’Leary_ our _pet? More than that, wasn’t she_ our _pet long before this?_

He plants a light kiss on Nico’s cheek and feels the younger boy tense, and then relax.

“Sorry,” Nico murmurs, glancing over his shoulder and smiling timidly. “I don’t –I’m not used to this.”

“Then you’d better. I plan on kissing you quite a bit,” says Percy, and Nico just flushes.

“Um. Let’s go, Mrs. O’Leary,” Nico orders, tugging on the hellhound’s collar that Beckendorf made her. Even after death, she still has it. How bittersweet.

Things go a bit more quickly after that, Percy finds. It isn’t long until they find Hades, and it’s not even that he’s in one of those disgusting monster bubbles. He’s out and about, but obviously hating being here. Who wouldn’t?

“Father!” Nico calls, sliding off of Mrs. O’Leary and approaching Hades. He bows down in respect, then straightens. Percy reluctantly follows.

Hades seems to size up his son. “Nico.” He clears his throat. “You have grown. And you’re here in Tartarus.” He turns to Percy and gazes at him coolly. “Percy Jackson.”

“Yes, Father,” says Nico quickly, before an argument starts (good call, Percy might have started the fight, oops), “Gaea trapped us, but we escaped. We came down here to help the gods fight back, to defeat her.”

And for some reason, Hades begins to laugh. Hard. Like, hysterically. As if the notion of being rescued from Tartarus by a couple of demigods was ridiculous. Percy is about to give the god a piece of his mind when Hades gets a bit of control over himself and explains breathlessly (can gods be breathless?), “My son,” he gasps, shuddering with laughter, “Nico. You have not changed a bit, have you? Always the optimist. Always thinking there is a way out. Oh, the naiveté!”

“Wh-what?” asks Nico, surprised and well, maybe a little hurt? “But, Father, there must be some way, you must have been planning an escape with the other Olympians. You have to fight!”

“No, Nico.” Hades actually _smiles_ and that’s when Percy wonders if this is some crazy dream or if they’re really in Tartarus. “Fighting is not an option anymore. We have lost. This is it.”

Nico clenches his fists. “You-you… Do you have _any idea_ what terrible things I have done these past couple of months? And then I come here, expecting the gods to want to fight back, to do right, to restore justice and peace and order in the world, and you –you’re an _immortal,_ and you’ve _given up?_ ”

Hades is stunned into silence for a moment, but Nico doesn’t let him get a word in edgewise. “Are all of the Olympians like you? Have they all given up?”

“No,” is Hades’ quiet response. “No, Zeus and Poseidon and–”

Nico doesn’t let him finish. He spins around and marches back to Mrs. O’Leary. Percy is kind of expecting Hades to blast his son to bits, but he just looks after him regretfully.

“Come on, Percy,” Nico spits out angrily, “if my father wants to rot in Tartarus, that’s his problem.”

He hesitantly leaves Hades’ side and climbs on top of Mrs. O’Leary.

“The other gods can’t be too far from here,” the younger teen continues.

“Nico,” Percy sighs.

“What?” the fifteen-year-old snaps.

“I’m sorry about Hades,” he murmurs, hugging the boy close.

Nico tenses. “Don’t be. He’s always like that. A coward. It’s where I get it from.”

“You’re not a coward,” Percy argues.  “Anything but. You are incredibly brave. The bravest person I know.”

He can’t really see it, but he can _feel_ Nico’s smile.

**Ω Ω Ω**

They have a considerable amount of luck with the other gods, actually. They’re bored and tired of being in Tartarus and after they hear about how terrible things are up top, they all get a look of rage in their eyes.

Hermes, one of the gods who was among the mortals most, is especially angry.

“We were already making plans of war but now that we have two heroes on our side…” says Ares, and he doesn’t even complain that one of the heroes happens to be Percy Jackson, the mortal thorn-in-the-war-god’s-side.

It’s only now, with two half-bloods, that the gods dare to hope.

“Are there more of you?” Athena asks, purposely avoiding Percy and instead directing the question at Nico.

“Not many, and not down here,” Nico admits. He smiles painfully. “But there are some. About thirteen. But there may be other groups of survivors, I’m not sure. With all this death… it’s hard to keep track.”

Athena nods, and there’s something about the gleam of her gray eyes that remind him of Annabeth. Percy swallows and looks away, and Nico seems to sense that he’s upset (because he’s Nico and somehow he can read him like a book) and, well, he doesn’t hold his hand or anything, but he does press closer, so close that Percy can feel the body heat coming off him, and that makes him feel a little better.

Aphrodite seems to notice this and gives them a wink. Percy is suddenly reminded of his conversation with her, years ago, before Bianca died. She told him something like, she would make his love life interesting. Well, isn’t that the truth? First he falls in love with the daughter of Athena, falls into Tartarus with her, and she dies. Next he falls in love with a son of Hades, falls into Tartarus with him, and now he can only hope Nico doesn’t die. Two completely different people, with completely different personalities, and none of that had mattered.

 Percy had fallen in love with Annabeth during war, and he’d fallen in love with Nico after war. Only now they have to fight, because being on the losing side not only sucks, but Gaea just sucks and she’s terrible and he much prefers the gods, because at least they can restore law and order instead of instating chaos.

“So how are we going to go about this?” asks Percy. “Where are the monsters? We haven’t seen any since we came down.”

“Surprisingly, Tartarus happens to be the safest place for demigods right now,” Artemis replies, “since there are no monsters down here save for the ones that actually fought on our side in the war. Which is not many.”

Tartarus? Safe for demigods?

“This whole thing is backwards,” Percy mutters, holding his head between his hands as if he has a headache.

“You can say that again,” Nico agrees, but he’s grinning, which is nice.

“So, we need to make a plan,” Athena states, unnecessarily.

“What plan?” asks Ares. “I say we just do a frontal assault and get this damn thing over with!”

“Ares,” Athena warns, gray eyes flashing, and Percy remembers that the goddess of wisdom not only hates his father, but Ares as well. Huh, well, at least he and Athena have some common ground. “We have already discussed how dangerous that is.”

“It’s actually not dangerous at all,” Nico interrupts, which Percy guesses that if it were anyone else, he would have been blasted to bits, but for whatever reason Athena seems to have a soft spot for the son of Hades.

He wonders if it’s because Hades never actually broke the oath, or if it’s because she hated the notion of he and Annabeth being together so much that him being with Nico, or maybe anyone but one of her children, is so much more welcome. He decides not to question her about it.

Athena narrows her eyes. “Go on.”

“Well,” Nico says, pausing to clear his throat and glance nervously at Percy. “Well. The Doors _are_ guarded, you see, but they’re being guarded by demigods. Demigods that happen to be on our side.”

Poseidon speaks for the first time, frowning. “That’s too easy, then.”

Zeus shakes his head. “Gaea is prideful in victory. She wants to show us that even with all of the odds stacked in our favor –”

“Which they aren’t,” Hera puts in, “considering our seven special demigods are dead.”

She glares at Nico, as if it’s his fault, and Percy’s suddenly reminded of her speaking with him and Annabeth after the Battle of the Labyrinth, telling them that Nico didn’t belong anywhere because he’s a son of Hades, and he sees red.

“I’m still here,” he spits out. “And Nico may not be part of the Seven, but he is just as important.”

“Sure,” Hera waves him off, and Percy wonders why this was a good idea in the first place. “A son of a coward. Obviously.”

“Percy,” Nico’s quiet, calming voice makes its way to his ears. “Leave it be.” He gives Percy a dark chocolate brown look, like, _Hera isn’t worth it._ And the son of Poseidon relaxes a bit.

“As I was saying,” Zeus begins. “Gaea wants us to get our hopes up. She wants to make a statement. Even by making things easy for us, she’ll win.”

“What a bitch,” Percy mutters, and Apollo jumps to his feet.

Percy can tell where this is going to go, and he bites back a groan of irritation.

_“Though our hopes are crushed_

_We will be victorious_

_Gaea is a bitch,”_ Apollo recites, and Artemis punches her twin brother on the arm.

“What?” the god of poetry protests. “It followed the syllable scheme!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Artemis states. “I just thought it was terrible.”

Apollo turns to Percy and Nico and gives them a blinding white smile. “I’m sorry, guys. My baby sister is a bit more prickly than usual. Eight, or, well, nine, I guess. Nine months in Tartarus will do that to you. But I still love her.”

“I’m not your baby sister,” the goddess of the hunt spits. “And I swear on the Styx, if you give me another noogie –”

She doesn’t finish her sentence, because Hermes cuts in.

“Can we just do this already? I’m bored.”

**Ω Ω Ω**

They’re at the Doors, right, (without any major complications, too, that’s weird; Nico will never get used to how this trip to Tartarus was actually safe. Nope. He was fully prepared to die and he’s kind of insulted that the most life-threatening thing they’ve faced here is, well, either the River of Lamentation, or a giant hellhound who didn’t remember them but is now wagging her tail and licking Percy’s face every five minutes) and now they’re arguing over who the hell is going to stay behind to press the fucking button for twelve minutes. Nico watches with growing amusement.

“Oh, for gods’ sake,” says Nyx, who for some reason is on their side, mostly because she’s gotten sick of hearing the gods argue with each other for the past eight months and she just wants them to leave Tartarus already. Seriously. “ _I live here._ Just go.”

“Not without me,” says the familiar voice of his father, and Nico tenses as he glances back behind him. Hades strides forward, and he gives Nico a look like, _Who’s a coward now?_

Please. He probably overheard that leaving Tartarus was actually going to be easy. That doesn’t make Nico any less happy to have more backup.

To have the last Big Three god in their midst.

To have his father to help.

They go up the elevator, and it’s a really tight fit with twelve (thirteen, counting Hades) Olympians and two demigods squeezed in. But, whatever.

The two half-bloods actually hold hands on the way up and Nico finds that he minds it a lot less, because Percy isn’t trying to fix him or trying to lend him strength or anything, he just wants to freaking hold hands and that’s a gesture that Nico can appreciate.

**Ω Ω Ω**

Anyway, this is how it goes: they have this huge war-type thing, right? And all of them almost die. Well, okay, of the remaining thirteen demigods that are up in Canada guarding the Doors of Death, ten survive this thing, which is kind of amazing when you think about it.

And by some freaking miracle, _the gods win._

Nico suspects that something about Tartarus recharged their batteries or something, made them more battle-ready, tougher, angrier. Or maybe they just wanted it more than Gaea. Vivian and her mother Hecate actually manage to put the earth goddess back to sleep, but it takes so much power out of Vivian that she falls to the ground, and Nico bites his lip and tries to ignore the ringing in his ears.

“Was she the girl…?” Percy asks, and Nico gives him an imperceptible nod of his head, and the older teen hugs him close.

“She’ll go to Elysium,” Nico mutters. “Winning has put Hades in a pretty good mood.”

“The world is trashed, though. Is the Underworld any better?”

“We didn’t totally destroy the world, Percy,” he murmurs. “The population of the world is still, er…” Nico has a harder time trying to determine how many people are alive than dead, but his estimates are pretty okay. “About… six billion?”

“Still one billion less than it should be,” Percy states, and Nico agrees, but it’s not like they’d had a choice then.

“It’ll be okay,” Hermes promises quietly. “Mortals are resilient. They are incredibly adaptable and soon this will all be nothing but a bad memory.”

“A billion people died,” Percy says.

“Nuclear war,” Hermes murmurs. “It’s still rather a plausible excuse. The mortals will be at peace for a while, but then something else will happen –it’s just how it is. I’m glad you two only tried to destroy places of the earth that had little to no inhabitants. That was good of you. You had no choice.”

“We could have chosen to die,” says Nico.

“Ah,” says the god of thieves, grinning. “But then we gods would not have ultimately won, would they?”

They are silent.

“We would reward you,” Hermes continues, “but I’m afraid we’re a bit… busy.”

“It’s understandable. Besides, I don’t want a reward,” Nico tells him. He glances at Percy and smiles gently at him. He takes Percy’s hand and gazes down at their entwined fingers, almost as if he doesn’t quite believe what happened in the Cocytus. Which still feels like a dream but he knows with every fiber of his being, was reality, and he just can’t get past that, somehow. “I just want… peace.”

“Reasonable,” Hermes says. “And that, we can give you.”

The god walks away, and Nico murmurs, “You know what’s really ironic?”

“What?”

“Manhattan is pretty untouched by this whole apocalypse thing.”

Percy loses it, probably because he can’t count how many movies he’s seen with New York being the first city destroyed by an apocalyptic event, and in real life, New York is as loud and lively as ever (well, except for some damages, but, well; Percy never dared to touch his city when he was raising hurricanes, that Nico knows for certain).

“Think we might actually be able to lead normal lives now?” asks Percy.

“I’d like that,” Nico replies softly. “I’m tired of running. Tired of using my powers. Tired of picking up messes that I never made. I just want to be happy.”

“Would your vision of happiness include me kissing you?”

“Quite a bit, actually,” the son of Hades states, grinning.

“Finally. You know, I couldn’t stand being in Tartarus with you.” Percy rolls his eyes.

“I just wanted to get this over with so we could just be a normal couple,” Nico says. “You and Annabeth were born out of war; I wanted us to be born out of peace.”

“I can respect that,” he murmurs, leaning in closely, letting their foreheads touch.

 They’re both dirty and bloody and extremely tired from using their powers, but they’re together. Nico stands up on his tiptoes and initiates a kiss, and it’s just as wonderful as the one they shared in the Cocytus, even more so, actually, because now he knows that Percy _wants_ it, and maybe if he hadn’t stood up on his tiptoes quite so soon, Percy would have been the one to kiss _him_. Oh, but who cares about who initiates the kiss so long as each one is more wonderful than the last?

It’s not like it hasn’t been a while since Nico was on top of the world, but it’s the first time he actually feels it, that everything is right again, everything is put into place. The gods are back, Percy’s kissing him, and everything (well, except the world) is perfect.

But that’s okay. Like Hermes said, mortals are resilient, and they if anyone can recover from something as catastrophic as Gaea rising, it’s mortal humans.

Percy breaks the kiss and smiles down at him. “So, back in Tartarus… was that an official thing?”

Nico shrugs. “If it wasn’t, then this sure makes us official, don’t you think?”

“I guess it doesn’t matter where it started, so long as we don’t end,” Percy says, giving him another kiss.

“Stop being such a sap,” he murmurs. 


End file.
